Tuesday, 20 February 2018

February Stick It Down/Scrap the Boys Collaboration Challenge

One of these is this sketch challenge (not sure who issued to who, thought). It's quite different to what I usually do. Not in the least because it involves a cut file and I haven't got a Silhouette (yet - that might change this week...ETA may have already done so - eek!).

The heart (there is also a star) cut file reminded me of Paige Evans' "Paige Kit" from her first collection "Fancy Free".

I wasn't going to buy any of the kits because the're not really my style (at least they weren't when they first came out) and I certainly wasn't going to follow the kit as it was by just sticking the die cut onto the printed sheet with the different "papers" already there. I didn't see the point. There was so little left to do that I might as well buy a ready made scrapbook page. I enjoy the process of scrapbooking not just the end result.

I bought two kits on purpose so I could cut up the triangles on one to use as templates. I'm glad I did since I want to make this page again - perhaps in my wedding album.

It would have been easier to stick the pieces down onto the other printed sheet to keep the alignment perfect, but I still needed it so I stuck them to scrap paper and cut it all out when I was done.

There will always be a decrease in accuracy so a little jiggling was required but we got there in the end.

I thought 6x6 paper pads were the way to go and I went with Amy Tangerine's "Better Together" since I had two for some reason. I also mixed in Paige Evans's "Oh My Heart" which blended quite well

I only glued lightly around the edge and stitched the inside bits down with a straight stitch on the sewing machine.

For some reason I felt smearing embossing paste around the outside of the heart would be a good idea. It probably would have been but I keep forgetting that all types of paste marked "pearlescent" seem to dry a kinda silvery colour rather than the slightly shimmery pearl white I wanted. It meant gold accents were out of the question.

They all looked stupid.

I think I wanted to cover more of the ombre green. I don't usually use green but I was being brave today.

Normally I have the ombre going top to bottom, but for some reason I like it going left to right and hoped I could journal in white on the darker side.

This die cut was larger than the one on the sketch so to make enough room for everything else I wanted on the page I pushed it off the edge in 2 areas.Once the past was dry and I lightly tacked down the large heart (which I put going off the page) I zig zag stitched the outer edge.

Next step was punching and/or die cutting (manually) all those hearts. It sounds faster than it was!

Tack and stitch then layer papers behind the photo and figure out the extra stickers for the title.

This was supposed to go in our yearly family album, but each of the 3 or so stories I could think of seemed to fit in better with SmallCraftyDude's album. The problem is I used pink on this layout and I challenged myself not to use it in his album.

I was lamenting this when he told me it was OK and to go ahead and put it in his album and he didn't mind.

This is the same kid who on the first day of Year 8 flatly refused (at first) to hold the cut apart from Shimelle's "Starshine" collection called "Mariner". He held up the number 7 with no issue the year before. 🤷Max: No way am I holding THAT!Me: Why not? What's wrong with it?Max: It's PINK!

Yes he was serious I'm sad to say. Some death threats hissed in his ear and he reluctantly complied.

I decided to go easy on the pink for the punched hearts, layers and embellies after his generous concession.

The acetate part of the title needed to be stitched down in order to keep it in place and I liked the continuity of the stitching. I also tried to keep loose threads where possible for continuity.

I wanted to include a few embellishments because I never don't want to and it was a bit tricky getting everything to "work" but we got thee in the end and I'm more or less satisfied. It's the usual first-layout-in-a-long-time thing.

On the bright side, I'm starting another one today ad so far things have moved much more easily.

Well this Crafty Mama has a lot to get through today, Some of it is fun like actually making and plenty is the more housekeepingy, behind-the-scenes boringness that goes with being a Crafty Mama.